


Nyctophobia

by evieva



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: Comfort, Drabble, F/F, Fluff, Fluffy Ending, Holding Hands, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-19
Updated: 2015-11-19
Packaged: 2018-05-02 10:07:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,681
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5244350
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/evieva/pseuds/evieva
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eli is working late, not paying any attention to hours passing as she works diligently. By the time she notices, it's already closing time for Otonokizaka High School, and she has to make a trek out into the dark, empty corridors...but, thankfully, she doesn't have to do it alone.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Nyctophobia

**Author's Note:**

> Eli's afraid of the dark. I'm sure this has been done in a million different ways, just enjoy it anyway!! ^^

The day grew dark outside as the sun set beyond the horizon, leaving Otonokizaka High School to its artificial lights for the remainder of the evening. The sun set sooner than usual in the winter time, so this didn’t bug Eli one bit. In fact, she didn’t notice the sun setting, nor the darkness falling over Japan as night time crawled over it.

She was working—filing extra paper work for the club requests she could and could not accept. It was a lot of work, especially since the students were just going on winter break. The vacations between school schedules were always hard to deal with, and Eli wished to finish as much paperwork as she could so she wouldn’t have to do that much the next day.

“Eli-cchi, I brought hot chocolate,” Nozomi said as she entered the room, closing the door behind her with her elbow. Eli grunted a response as she signed another paper, and threw one in the ‘no’ pile. Nozomi set the mugs down next to Eli, and leaned against her, hugging her gently. “Eli-cchi~.” Eli finally looked up.

“What is it?”

“If you work too hard you’ll get wrinkles.”

The Student Council President scoffed. “Yes, well. I guess I’ll be an old hag. I must finish this.” Nozomi hummed in response, finding a seat a couple chairs away. Eli huffed, setting a pile neatly by tapping it on the table. “You _could_ help you know, Nozomi.”

“I know, I know, but,” Nozomi smiled. “it’s very late.”

Eli squinted, finally noticing that her eyes were stinging from staring too long. She blinked a few times, rubbing her eyes before looking at the clock on the wall. “I-it’s nine already!?”

“Yes,” The black haired responded. “I’ve been waiting for you to notice.”

“Why didn’t you tell me!?” Eli cried, gathering the paper work she finished and what she had left to do in her arms. She shot up and stepped around the table to the baskets on the other side of the room. “You know I hate staying at school this late! They shut off the lights at nine!”

“Well, you know how hard it is to get your attention when you’re like this.” Nozomi smirked. “Besides, it’s not like its nine-o-clock exactly. We can still get out before it gets _too_ dark in here.”

“Don’t look at me like that.” Eli snapped, a little bit more scared then angry. “You know that I’m…”

“Afraid of the dark?” The Vice-President grinned knowingly. “Yeah, I know you are.”

Eli huffed, grabbing up her coat and shrugging it on over her uniform. “Let’s go before—“

At that moment, she heard the heart-stopping echo of the school lights clapping off, one by one. It was only a matter of seconds before the Student Council room was pitch-black. Eli shrieked, jumping up and down and clasping her hands together in a sort of prayer. She closed her eyes and began to mumble a curse at the janitor for cutting the lights early and at Nozomi for not telling her sooner.

“Eli-cchi, it’s _okay_ ,” Eli suddenly felt a warm hand on hers, and she opened her eyes to find Nozomi gazing at her in the moonlight, her eyes crinkled from the smile on her lips. Moonlight wasn’t so bad, and though Eli would still be more comfortable with a bright one, the glow was comforting. Her heart still racing she kept her blue eyes on Nozomi who squeezed her hand. “I’ll get you out. Don’t you worry.”

To Eli’s surprise, she seemed rather serious about what she said. The assurance in her voice was enough to make the blonde’s heart skip a rapid-beat, and she was suddenly very grateful to have Nozomi with her. She couldn’t think of a way she’d be able to get out of the school by herself, and she would more than likely stay in the Council room until morning. She took a few breaths as Nozomi grabbed her coat from the rack, and put it on. She then pulled out her phone, and flipped it open. The light from it illuminated the two of them.

“Here,” Nozomi handed Eli her school bag, and wrapped her scarf around her neck. “Let’s get out of here.”

Eli could only respond with a breathless “Yea…” before the black-haired moved past her to open the door to the hall. When Eli looked, all she could see was darkness. She shivered.

“It’s okay. C’mon, I’ll hold your hand all the way out, if you want.” Nozomi offer her free hand, and Eli took it without a second-thought. She swallowed harshly as they took their first steps out into the corridor. Eli squeezed her hand tighter the farther out they walked. Nozomi must have noticed cause she looked back. “The stairs are just around the corner. You can make it.”

“Yes, I know…” Eli tried to sound like she wasn’t tearing at the seams. “…ohh-hh dear…” She whispered to herself.

Nozomi paused in her tracks. “Hey, I know you’re scared…” She turned to Eli again. “But, do you think you could move a _little_ bit faster?”

Eli blinked in surprise, and finally felt her knees quaking beneath her. She was astounded she was able to walk at all. She shook her head slowly. “No…”

Nozomi smiled, raising an eyebrow. “Okay… _slow_ and steady it is then.” She turned back and started walking again. They were going rather slow, but Eli couldn’t think of a way to make herself move. It was like her whole body was in slow-motion. Thoughts came to her slower, movement came to her slower—all in all, she just wanted to freeze-up and not move an inch. She hated that this happened to her. She was, after all, a very proud person. And being afraid of the dark as she was was…rather embarrassing. She was just glad it was Nozomi who was here and not anyone else. She would hate for the other members of the Student Council to see her like this.

After a while, Nozomi took to counting down the final steps with ‘almost there’s and ‘you’ve got this’s. Eli felt like a baby, but every time Nozomi said something she felt calmer. If they walked in silence any longer, she was afraid she’d start to cry. The darkness always made her feel so alone, and, at the same time, like there were so many things watching her. It was a horrible experience, and in her opinion, if one was not afraid of the dark, there must be something wrong with _them_.

“Couple more…and…”Nozomi stopped her. “We’re here!”

Eli shook as she looked down the stairs.

“See? That wasn’t so bad.” The Vice President swung her hand. “You didn’t get eaten by any monster, did ya?”

“Nozomi!” She whined. “Don’t give me ideas! Let’s just get this over with, I wanna go home!”

“Okay, alright,” Nozomi took the first step down the stairs, then the second, when a loud noise sounded from down below. Eli practically hurled herself on her friend, screeching and sobbing. Nozomi was quick to wrap her arms around her, rubbing her back and shushing her. “It’s okay, Eli-cchi, it’s okay. It’s just a noise.”

“A rather loud one!” Eli cried. “What if it’s a bear?”

“’A bear’, huh?” Nozomi replied. Eli thought for sure she was going to tease her about it. Why would a bear be in the school? No, there was no time for rational thought when it came to this. Anything could be down those stairs, and anything dangerous would leave Eli scarred for life. But, instead of questioning her logic, Nozomi said: “Well, if it’s a bear, we’ll scare it off together. Bear’s are just as afraid of the dark as we are, so it’ll be easy to scare it away.”

Eli sniffed into Nozomi’s scarf, moving her face a little to glance up at her. She was closing her eyes, delightfully and patiently enjoying the Student Council President’s embrace. The blonde sat up to look into the black-haired’s face. Nozomi reached up, a smile still on her face, to wipe Eli’s tears away with her thumb. “It’ll be okay.” She said, and for the first time in her life, Eli believed it. Her mother and father had told her that many times, both with good intentions, but never as sincerely as Nozomi did. They had always said it with idea in mind that she would get over it when she was older.  Eli trusted the girl that held her more than she had ever trusted a person outside her family before. Looking into her sea-green eyes was like looking at a bright light, and in this darkness, Eli was indebted to their brilliance.

With a short sniff and a nod, Eli took Nozomi’s hand again. Her legs had stopped quivering, and her heart was beating a lot slower than before. “I’m going to close my eyes, Nozomi, and you will guide me out the rest of the way.”

“That’s a lot of pressure you’re putting on me,” She stated. “It might be a little hard fighting off the bear by myself, but I’ll do it. For you, Eli-cchi.”

Eli closed her eyes. “Yes.”

               

* * *

 

When they finally made it out of the school, and Eli could feel the cold night air on her skin, she opened her eyes and sighed with relief. Her breath created a cloud in the air that she had never been happier to see. The air chilled her hot lungs, and relieved her heart of the painful idea that she was still inside the dark, dark school.

“We made it.” Nozomi stated, matter-of-factly.

“Yes…” Eli responded with a big smile. “Yes, thank you.”

“Can I walk you home?” The Vice-President asked, tightening her grip on Eli’s hand. Eli responded by adjusting their hands so that their fingers laced together.

“Yes.” She said.

They walked down the long steps in front of their school, when Nozomi said: “So…a bear, huh?”

Eli blushed, seeing the smirk on her partners face. “S-shut up!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading! Don't forget to leave kudos and comments! It means the world!! ^3^


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